Unemployment – this had risen to over 6 million by 1932
Inflation and hyperinflation – Germany had faced devastating hyperinflation in 1923 when $1 = 4,200,000,000,000 marks
Self-sufficiency (autarky) - Germany relied on overseas trade for vital raw materials and food supplies. Part of the reason Germany had lost the Great War was because it hadn’t been able to maintain these supplies. Hitler hoped to make Germany self-sufficient.
In the 1933 Election campaign, Adolf Hitler promised that if he gained power he would abolish unemployment. He was lucky in that the German economy was just beginning to recover when he came into office, which some historians argue was the main cause for Nazi Germanys economic success. However, the policies that Hitler introduced did help to reduce the number of people unemployed in Germany.
As he entered office his first priority was to regulate the unemployment. A core member of the Nazi Party; Conservative financier Hjalmar Schacht, was named President of the Reichsbank in order for more funds to be utilized towards state funded projects. This itself created a boom in employment as it was spent on contractors who focused on manual labour rather than machines; public buildings, land improvement schemes and the Autobahn. Rearmament was also used to spark employment. Through the opening new arms factories, it created thousands of new jobs.
The Minister of Economics, Hjalmar Schacht, began to lose favour with Hitler because of his opposition to growing military expenditures and was replaced with Hermann Goering who came up with the Four Year Plan on October 18, 1936 and was given extraordinary powers for an extraordinary situation. In short, Goering had complete control over the economy including the private sector. Goering had also abolished trade unions were replaced by Strength Through Joy – better leisure opportunities, where the labour force would have incentives to work for all paid vacations, such as cruises to the Canary Islands.
Success! But:
1. By 1939, Germany still imported 33% of its required raw materials
2. From 1933 to 1939, the Nazi government always spent more than it earned so that by 1939, government debt stood at over 40 billion Reichsmarks.
3. Real income in 1938 was all but the same as the 1928 figure.
Stalin’s Economic Policy
The USSR’s economic policy from 1928-1941 was one motivated by a desire to bridge the industrial gap with the Western Powers while consolidating the Communist Party’s grip on society. Prior to Stalin’s reforming of the economic system, the USSR was industrially “backward” and suffered from class inequalities resulting from the New Economic Policy. Stalin’s policies were put in practice mainly through Collectivization and the Five-Year Plans where the heavy industry was heavily stressed. Collectivization (“the amalgamation of small peasant farms into large collective farms”), through its persecution of Kulaks, resulted in famine and significant losses of cattle and livestock without any significant improvements in living standards. The two Five-Year Plans (1928-32, 1933-37), through greater production of machinery and materials, resulted in greater coal, electrical, oil, pig-iron and steel output to the point where the USSR could compete with the Western Powers. In addition, 1.5 Million workers gained management posts under the first Five-Year Plans, hence bringing forth the Nomenklatura system where the party came to control appointments in society.
Compare/Contrast
- Different economic backgrounds: Russia was economically ‘backwards’ with chronic issues in the agricultural sector. Furthermore, they lagged behind industry, as well as recovering from the war. Specifically in Stalin’s time production levels had reached those similar to that of pre-war conditions but the population had increased by 20 million. Germany on the other hand had monetary inconsistencies (i.e. inflation) and 6 million unemployed linked to the Great Depression.
- Different motives: Stalin believed that R. needed to catch up to the W. powers. Hitler had a preoccupation with rearmament and felt that Ger needed to be prepared for war ‘defence economy’- link to Stalin who had major security concerns and nationalistic tendencies not unlike Hitler. Both leaders needed stable economies for their extremist regimes to survive.
- Hitler and the Nazis had no grand plan to replace capitalism with a new system of fascist economics like Stalin and communism
- Four Year Plans and Five Year Plans essentially same results and consequences.
- In Germany there was an agricultural crisis (similarly to USSR) due to a lack of emphasis on reforming on the agricultural sector in favour of rearmament. The USSR also had an agricultural crisis however they did try to rectify this through the use of forced collectivization.
Education:
Nazi Germany:
Education was used to mould the next generation which would guarantee the future of the Reich. The education was used in order to control and somewhat “brainwash” the common German youth. It was strongly influenced by the Nazi way of thinking, and the teachers were badly paid and had poor treatment if they were not part of the Nazi Party. (Universities lost about 15% of their staff). Schools were subject to constant interference by the Hitelr Youth, whose members encouraged to reject their teacher’s authority. The amount of time devoted for sports increased to 15% and the syllabus for biology, history, and German were overhauled to ensure that they stressed national greatness and Nazi racial theories. The Hitler Youth group was created in 1926, in order to have a false sense of community, with an emphasis on military virtues. The youths saw this as a chance to break away from parental authority, the school and churches. By 1933, it had 50,000 members. The Hitler Youth Law which was passed in 1936 stated that “all German young people must be educated in the Hitler Youth physically, intellectually, and morally in the spirit of National Socialism.
Stalin's USSR:
Textbooks were prescribed by the government and formal examinations were reinstalled. Education was used to teach the communist ideology in school, and this became a compulsory subject. It focussed on the technical and scientific learning to meet the needs of the Five-Year Plan. The quota system allowed entry to higher education based on a social class. Overall the education system returned to a more traditional basis. The youth group was called the Komsomol and it was at the forefront of the Cultural Revolution. It was seen as a radical step towards the socialist utopia. The attacks on the “bourgeois” elements removed many teachers and led to a collapse of many education departments. The Education Law that was passed in 1935 meant that the government had stricter control over the curriculum.
Compare/Contrast:
Overall, the education systems in both Nazi Germany and the USSR were used to control the future generations of their country. They changed the textbooks and curriculums in order to suit their new policies and ideologies. The use of different youth groups allowed them both to control their minds. However, in contrast, Stalin based the education system more around the economic policies of the time, in order to revive the stick to the Five-Year Plan, whereas Hitler focussed more on establishing a community that would trust him and give him support.
Media
Nazi Germany:
- Created the Reich Chamber of culture, which made censorship very easy. All people who wanted to work in Media had to be a member. Thorough examination by Nazi officials of each applicant was necessary. The Gestapo and the SS were instructed to remove anyone publishing books or magazines out side of the chamber.
- By 1939 the Nazi publishing house owned two thirds of the newspapers
- Propaganda Ministry controlled news agencies that provided information to press
- Film production was controlled by the Nazi Party. As a result movies were used for spreading propaganda as Hitlerjunge Quex.
- Radios became cheaper so that everyone could hear Hitler’s voice.
-censorship
Stalin's USSR:
- A cultural revolution was underway to promote a positive images of soviet achievement and life
- Government agencies controlled what was published and by whom
- Soviet newspapers such as Pravda and Izvestiya had very little real information and had very narrow views
- No western style adverts
- - It was based on Marxist-Leninist ideology.
- Science became important. Also radio and media became important.
-
-censorship
Compare/ contrast:
- Both controlled the press
- Both wanted to change the culture to make their ideologies more prominent
- Hitler due to the economic condition of Germany, was able to mass produce radios to broadcast propaganda
- Russia’s economic condition was less good therefore most people couldn’t afford the technology
Propaganda
Nazi Germany:
- Hitler appointed Goebbels to the cabinet as minister of propaganda his aim was to get rid of anything that was hostile or damaging to Nazi party and Germans have strong views about the Nazi Germany.
- - A system of censorship was introduced.
- Organized book burning ceremonies in Berlin and other university cities which consisted of destroying books which did not appeal Nazi ideology.
- Nazi architecture was grand to remind people of Nazi power
- It’s propaganda was focused on Nazi ideology with a strong nationalistic view
- Most campaigns make Hitler on a higher status than most people, brings the ideology to a good light and looks down on the minorities (mostly the Jews)
- In Nuremberg rallies were introduced to show the might of the Nazi nation.
Stalin's USSR:
- Writers were only suppose to write about working class heroes who overcame the evil capitalists
- Stalin was presented as a close colleague of Lenin and a hero of the civil war (adding him to old paintings and changing textbooks)
- Artists turned his image from a Georgian peasant into a movie star
- Quoted exaggerated production achievements to make people join the workforce
- Soviet Union published more than 8000 newspapers daily in six languages. It was also circulated in Russian version. Propaganda was made all over the world.
- -also the aim was to create a new man using propaganda and education. “uncle Lenin”
Treatment of minorities
Nazi Germany
à1933: Law passed permitting the sterilization of people with mentally or hereditary illness: “moral feeble-mindedness”. The definition of “illness” was made unclear, therefore Nazi authorities had the ability to determine who was “ill”: 350, 000 were sterilized; ‘Euthanasia’ for 100, 000 mentally ill people.
à Beggars, vagrants and criminals sterilized and/or sent to concentration camps as a cheap labour (11 000)
à 10 000 – 15 000 homosexuals in concentration camps or killed, ‘they should be killed’
à 500, 000 Gypsies were victims of the Holocaust (racial discrimination and discriminatory laws were applied to them).
USSR
- Deported nations: Volga Germans, Crimean Tatars, Meshketian Turks, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Karachai, Kalmyks – entire nation deported from their homeland, some were never let to come back and so disappeared as a nation.
- Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Armenians, Georgians, Byelorussians and other USSR components except Russians: mass deportation, suppression of any religion (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc.), allowed to keep the language (though Russian was strongly encouraged by education, media, etc.).
- 1933 Ukrainian famine when all food was taken to Russia: 6millions deaths.
Comparison / Contrast
Nazi Germany was against other nations than Aryans as well as against ‘not-healthy’ Aryans, because of too strong nationalism and social Darwinism beliefs. USSR under Stalin practised bad treatment for minority nations in order to keep power, threaten, and get rid off ‘rebel’ nations. Both states used deportations to concentration camps (Germany) or labour camps (USSR). USSR had a greater scope of violence because had access to bigger territories and less specific genocide ideas.
Religious groups
Nazi Germany
1937: (post Berlin Olympics 1936) Anti-Semitism became more radical.
Jewish firms were liquidated from their ownership; German people were discouraged from using Jewish businesses. Jewish doctors/vets/dentists couldn’t practice on non-Jews. 1941: Forced to wear Star of David Badges
July 1938: Law passed forcing all Jews to adopt a “Jewish” name before their given name (e.g.: “Sarah”: females, “Israel”: males).
November 9, 1938, “Night of Broken Glass”: “Demonstrations” against Jews by German community. 8,000 shops/homes set on fire. 20, 000 arrested, 100 killed.
Ghettoization: Segregated in the country to neighborhoods of Jews only.
KEY TERMS/EVENTS: SA terror, April boycott 1933, the anti-Jewish legislation 1933, the Nuremberg Laws 1935 (banned marriages and sex between Germans and Jews), Kristallnicht 1938, concentration camps during the war.
Church: Because 95% of German population in 1933 was Christian, Hitler couldn’t realistically hope to renounce all forms of religion and successfully gain power. Therefore his strategies and polices towards Christianity were unclear, but still a pragmatic policy at the time in relation to his concerns.
‘National socialism and Christianity are irreconcilable’ (Martin Bormann, Hitler’s private secretary)
Protestants:
- Roman Catholics: 1933 The Concordat; however, programs against Catholic schools, word ‘Christmas’ changed to ‘Yuletide’, new SS Nazi rituals for birth, marriage and death invented, etc.
- Protestants: Muller attempted to gain control of the Protestant Church and Nazify them; Reich Church Ministry.
Churches agree with Hitler’s anti-communism.
USSR
- Anti-Semitic, strict quotas set for the entry of Jews into higher education.
- State separated from religion, all the religion oppressed (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism), atheism propagated, anti-religion propagation (atheism lessons at school, etc.)
Comparison / Contrast
Both states could not co-exist with religion. However, USSR was more severe on this issue and openly oppressed religion and propagated atheism, while Hitler at least in the beginning needed Church support for the elections.
Anti-Semitism was much more specific and severe in Germany than in USSR, but it was still in both states.
USSR had to deal with very different religions so the policies were complex and different for different religions.
Art
Nazi Germany
Art was vital for propaganda. Elimination of opposition…in forms of literature, press, theatre, and music. Artists were put under censorship…created propaganda art demanded by the government…if one were to not follow the expectations they would loose their job. Heroism, strength, nationalism, and community were main themes. Source of racist politics upon which its ideology was founded. Important element to strengthening the Third Reich. Political aims and artistic expression became one. Country life, health, and the Aryan race. No place for modern art. Portray German world as peaceful. Threatening of jobs, family, and existence. Jews depicted as inhuman and inferior. In films Jews showed as vermin’s, fit only for extermination.
Stalin's USSR
Rigid control over the sphere of the arts and popular Culture. Cultural Revolution of 1928-32, was the rooting out off al elements of bourgeois culture and constructs a new Soviet Culture. (Socialist Realism) Teachings of Socialist ideology: books. Instrument of the party leadership…Stalin Cult. Encouraged patriotism ad Russian nationalism…in the threat of war. Full-scale assault on the intelligentsia and cultural elites. ‘Fellow Travellers’ tolerated under Lenin were to be removed and replaced by artists whose loyalty to socialism was not a question. Komosol enthusiasts attacked ‘bourgeois’ elements…during theatre productions they booed the performers and interrupted the plays. Cult of the ‘little man’…writing of novels that glorified the achievements of the industrial worker and collective peasant…bourgeois writing criticized as a representation only of wealthy people of high status. Showed heroes connected to party, war stories, detective stories where capitalists were the bad guys. Agriculture, Red Square made 6 directions available for soldiers to march through during parades; metro station…beautiful and designed to impress, Moscow university. Rejection of abstract art as posters, paintings and sculptures presented images of worker and peasant…working for socialism. Statues of Stalin along with the ones of Lenin. Many writers, actors, directors, artists who did not follow these standard were either killed or sent to the gulags.
Compare/ Contrast
Both made it an effort to stop new art from influencing the people. They controlled what art was published and used in as propaganda. Depicting themselves in their ideals…and manipulating the people. Both brought down their enemies through art the Nazis with the Jews and the Russians with the bourgeois society.
Women
Nazi Germany
Women were seen as full time housewives the Nazi’s aimed at removing them from labour force and encouraged them to have more children. Several policies involving tax concessions and welfare payments were put into affect to try and motivate women to take rolls as domestic housewives. For example overall men were paid more than women as a method to increase the number of housewives to fit the ideal Nazi roll. Sometimes young women were employed in more basic jobs such as waitress, secretaries, or other service oriented labour. Another policy placed by Hitler involved couples receiving interest free loans of RM 600 (about 4 months worth of an average worker’s salary), the wife was required to quit her job and a quarter of the loan was cancelled for every child born. Propaganda constantly stressed the nobility of motherhood and in 1939 the Mother’s Cross was introduced to reward mothers of large families. By Hitler instating these polices he managed to increase the birth rate and the number of marriages during the Third Reich.
Stalin's USSR
Granted better rights after 1917. Abortion and divorce easier. But women remained under represented in the party. Collectivisation and industrialisation relied on the labour o women, worked and used by government out of economic necessity. Everyone is equal…men and women too. Higher education provided, new opportunities. Cultural revolution aimed to destroy traditional ‘bourgeois’ concept of family…women in the countryside found themselves deserted by husbands who left for jobs in the town; breakup of families, orphans roamed the streets…concerned the authorities. Muslim sectors stayed resistant to change because of religious reasons. Then big change with ‘Great Retreat’ decisions to improve family policy. Raised status of marriages (mother-heroines). Divorce more expensive. Homosexuality made illegal 1939. Family now necessary unit of socialist society, traditional values were reasserted.
Compare/ Contrast
One similarity, which one can assume the Russians copied from the Germanys in an attempt to improve family policy was the idea of awarding women who have may children in order to encourage them to do so…ie. Mothers red cross of Germany and Mother-Heroines of USSR. Women were viewed as more important in Nazi Germany for their domesticity while women in USSR were simply treated as men, extras in the work force given rights and opportunities for the government’s gain by having more citizens working for them. The family policies caused chaos and were later changed in order to bring back traditional values but generally women’s lives suffered as they were abandoned by their husbands and children. There is no evidence that women in Nazi Germany were not content with their position and seemed to fit perfectly into a system which was based on everyone being organized into their roles and position in the Nazi society.
Economic Policies
Nazi Economic Policies
Hitler’s Priorities
In the 1933 Election campaign, Adolf Hitler promised that if he gained power he would abolish unemployment. He was lucky in that the German economy was just beginning to recover when he came into office, which some historians argue was the main cause for Nazi Germanys economic success. However, the policies that Hitler introduced did help to reduce the number of people unemployed in Germany.
As he entered office his first priority was to regulate the unemployment. A core member of the Nazi Party; Conservative financier Hjalmar Schacht, was named President of the Reichsbank in order for more funds to be utilized towards state funded projects. This itself created a boom in employment as it was spent on contractors who focused on manual labour rather than machines; public buildings, land improvement schemes and the Autobahn. Rearmament was also used to spark employment. Through the opening new arms factories, it created thousands of new jobs.
The Minister of Economics, Hjalmar Schacht, began to lose favour with Hitler because of his opposition to growing military expenditures and was replaced with Hermann Goering who came up with the Four Year Plan on October 18, 1936 and was given extraordinary powers for an extraordinary situation. In short, Goering had complete control over the economy including the private sector. Goering had also abolished trade unions were replaced by Strength Through Joy – better leisure opportunities, where the labour force would have incentives to work for all paid vacations, such as cruises to the Canary Islands.
Success! But:
1. By 1939, Germany still imported 33% of its required raw materials
2. From 1933 to 1939, the Nazi government always spent more than it earned so that by 1939, government debt stood at over 40 billion Reichsmarks.
3. Real income in 1938 was all but the same as the 1928 figure.
Stalin’s Economic Policy
The USSR’s economic policy from 1928-1941 was one motivated by a desire to bridge the industrial gap with the Western Powers while consolidating the Communist Party’s grip on society. Prior to Stalin’s reforming of the economic system, the USSR was industrially “backward” and suffered from class inequalities resulting from the New Economic Policy. Stalin’s policies were put in practice mainly through Collectivization and the Five-Year Plans where the heavy industry was heavily stressed. Collectivization (“the amalgamation of small peasant farms into large collective farms”), through its persecution of Kulaks, resulted in famine and significant losses of cattle and livestock without any significant improvements in living standards. The two Five-Year Plans (1928-32, 1933-37), through greater production of machinery and materials, resulted in greater coal, electrical, oil, pig-iron and steel output to the point where the USSR could compete with the Western Powers. In addition, 1.5 Million workers gained management posts under the first Five-Year Plans, hence bringing forth the Nomenklatura system where the party came to control appointments in society.
Compare/Contrast
- Different economic backgrounds: Russia was economically ‘backwards’ with chronic issues in the agricultural sector. Furthermore, they lagged behind industry, as well as recovering from the war. Specifically in Stalin’s time production levels had reached those similar to that of pre-war conditions but the population had increased by 20 million. Germany on the other hand had monetary inconsistencies (i.e. inflation) and 6 million unemployed linked to the Great Depression.
- Different motives: Stalin believed that R. needed to catch up to the W. powers. Hitler had a preoccupation with rearmament and felt that Ger needed to be prepared for war ‘defence economy’- link to Stalin who had major security concerns and nationalistic tendencies not unlike Hitler. Both leaders needed stable economies for their extremist regimes to survive.
- Hitler and the Nazis had no grand plan to replace capitalism with a new system of fascist economics like Stalin and communism
- Four Year Plans and Five Year Plans essentially same results and consequences.
- In Germany there was an agricultural crisis (similarly to USSR) due to a lack of emphasis on reforming on the agricultural sector in favour of rearmament. The USSR also had an agricultural crisis however they did try to rectify this through the use of forced collectivization.
Education:
Nazi Germany:
Education was used to mould the next generation which would guarantee the future of the Reich. The education was used in order to control and somewhat “brainwash” the common German youth. It was strongly influenced by the Nazi way of thinking, and the teachers were badly paid and had poor treatment if they were not part of the Nazi Party. (Universities lost about 15% of their staff). Schools were subject to constant interference by the Hitelr Youth, whose members encouraged to reject their teacher’s authority. The amount of time devoted for sports increased to 15% and the syllabus for biology, history, and German were overhauled to ensure that they stressed national greatness and Nazi racial theories.The Hitler Youth group was created in 1926, in order to have a false sense of community, with an emphasis on military virtues. The youths saw this as a chance to break away from parental authority, the school and churches. By 1933, it had 50,000 members. The Hitler Youth Law which was passed in 1936 stated that “all German young people must be educated in the Hitler Youth physically, intellectually, and morally in the spirit of National Socialism.
Stalin's USSR:
Textbooks were prescribed by the government and formal examinations were reinstalled. Education was used to teach the communist ideology in school, and this became a compulsory subject. It focussed on the technical and scientific learning to meet the needs of the Five-Year Plan. The quota system allowed entry to higher education based on a social class. Overall the education system returned to a more traditional basis. The youth group was called the Komsomol and it was at the forefront of the Cultural Revolution. It was seen as a radical step towards the socialist utopia. The attacks on the “bourgeois” elements removed many teachers and led to a collapse of many education departments. The Education Law that was passed in 1935 meant that the government had stricter control over the curriculum.Compare/Contrast:
Overall, the education systems in both Nazi Germany and the USSR were used to control the future generations of their country. They changed the textbooks and curriculums in order to suit their new policies and ideologies. The use of different youth groups allowed them both to control their minds. However, in contrast, Stalin based the education system more around the economic policies of the time, in order to revive the stick to the Five-Year Plan, whereas Hitler focussed more on establishing a community that would trust him and give him support.Media
Nazi Germany:
- Created the Reich Chamber of culture, which made censorship very easy. All people who wanted to work in Media had to be a member. Thorough examination by Nazi officials of each applicant was necessary. The Gestapo and the SS were instructed to remove anyone publishing books or magazines out side of the chamber.- By 1939 the Nazi publishing house owned two thirds of the newspapers
- Propaganda Ministry controlled news agencies that provided information to press
- Film production was controlled by the Nazi Party. As a result movies were used for spreading propaganda as Hitlerjunge Quex.
- Radios became cheaper so that everyone could hear Hitler’s voice.
-censorship
Stalin's USSR:
- A cultural revolution was underway to promote a positive images of soviet achievement and life
- Government agencies controlled what was published and by whom
- Soviet newspapers such as Pravda and Izvestiya had very little real information and had very narrow views
- No western style adverts
- - It was based on Marxist-Leninist ideology.
- Science became important. Also radio and media became important.
-
-censorship
Compare/ contrast:
- Both controlled the press- Both wanted to change the culture to make their ideologies more prominent
- Hitler due to the economic condition of Germany, was able to mass produce radios to broadcast propaganda
- Russia’s economic condition was less good therefore most people couldn’t afford the technology
Propaganda
Nazi Germany:
- Hitler appointed Goebbels to the cabinet as minister of propaganda his aim was to get rid of anything that was hostile or damaging to Nazi party and Germans have strong views about the Nazi Germany.
- - A system of censorship was introduced.
- Organized book burning ceremonies in Berlin and other university cities which consisted of destroying books which did not appeal Nazi ideology.
- Nazi architecture was grand to remind people of Nazi power
- It’s propaganda was focused on Nazi ideology with a strong nationalistic view
- Most campaigns make Hitler on a higher status than most people, brings the ideology to a good light and looks down on the minorities (mostly the Jews)
- In Nuremberg rallies were introduced to show the might of the Nazi nation.
Stalin's USSR:
- Writers were only suppose to write about working class heroes who overcame the evil capitalists- Stalin was presented as a close colleague of Lenin and a hero of the civil war (adding him to old paintings and changing textbooks)
- Artists turned his image from a Georgian peasant into a movie star
- Quoted exaggerated production achievements to make people join the workforce
- Soviet Union published more than 8000 newspapers daily in six languages. It was also circulated in Russian version. Propaganda was made all over the world.
- -also the aim was to create a new man using propaganda and education. “uncle Lenin”
Treatment of minorities
Nazi Germany
à1933: Law passed permitting the sterilization of people with mentally or hereditary illness: “moral feeble-mindedness”. The definition of “illness” was made unclear, therefore Nazi authorities had the ability to determine who was “ill”: 350, 000 were sterilized; ‘Euthanasia’ for 100, 000 mentally ill people.
à Beggars, vagrants and criminals sterilized and/or sent to concentration camps as a cheap labour (11 000)
à 10 000 – 15 000 homosexuals in concentration camps or killed, ‘they should be killed’
à 500, 000 Gypsies were victims of the Holocaust (racial discrimination and discriminatory laws were applied to them).
USSR
- Deported nations: Volga Germans, Crimean Tatars, Meshketian Turks, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Karachai, Kalmyks – entire nation deported from their homeland, some were never let to come back and so disappeared as a nation.
- Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Armenians, Georgians, Byelorussians and other USSR components except Russians: mass deportation, suppression of any religion (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc.), allowed to keep the language (though Russian was strongly encouraged by education, media, etc.).
- 1933 Ukrainian famine when all food was taken to Russia: 6millions deaths.
Comparison / Contrast
Nazi Germany was against other nations than Aryans as well as against ‘not-healthy’ Aryans, because of too strong nationalism and social Darwinism beliefs. USSR under Stalin practised bad treatment for minority nations in order to keep power, threaten, and get rid off ‘rebel’ nations. Both states used deportations to concentration camps (Germany) or labour camps (USSR). USSR had a greater scope of violence because had access to bigger territories and less specific genocide ideas.
Religious groups
Nazi Germany
1937: (post Berlin Olympics 1936) Anti-Semitism became more radical.
Jewish firms were liquidated from their ownership; German people were discouraged from using Jewish businesses. Jewish doctors/vets/dentists couldn’t practice on non-Jews. 1941: Forced to wear Star of David Badges
July 1938: Law passed forcing all Jews to adopt a “Jewish” name before their given name (e.g.: “Sarah”: females, “Israel”: males).
November 9, 1938, “Night of Broken Glass”: “Demonstrations” against Jews by German community. 8,000 shops/homes set on fire. 20, 000 arrested, 100 killed.
Ghettoization: Segregated in the country to neighborhoods of Jews only.
KEY TERMS/EVENTS: SA terror, April boycott 1933, the anti-Jewish legislation 1933, the Nuremberg Laws 1935 (banned marriages and sex between Germans and Jews), Kristallnicht 1938, concentration camps during the war.
Church: Because 95% of German population in 1933 was Christian, Hitler couldn’t realistically hope to renounce all forms of religion and successfully gain power. Therefore his strategies and polices towards Christianity were unclear, but still a pragmatic policy at the time in relation to his concerns.
‘National socialism and Christianity are irreconcilable’ (Martin Bormann, Hitler’s private secretary)
Protestants:
- Roman Catholics: 1933 The Concordat; however, programs against Catholic schools, word ‘Christmas’ changed to ‘Yuletide’, new SS Nazi rituals for birth, marriage and death invented, etc.
- Protestants: Muller attempted to gain control of the Protestant Church and Nazify them; Reich Church Ministry.
Churches agree with Hitler’s anti-communism.
USSR
- Anti-Semitic, strict quotas set for the entry of Jews into higher education.
- State separated from religion, all the religion oppressed (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism), atheism propagated, anti-religion propagation (atheism lessons at school, etc.)
Comparison / Contrast
Both states could not co-exist with religion. However, USSR was more severe on this issue and openly oppressed religion and propagated atheism, while Hitler at least in the beginning needed Church support for the elections.
Anti-Semitism was much more specific and severe in Germany than in USSR, but it was still in both states.
USSR had to deal with very different religions so the policies were complex and different for different religions.
Art
Nazi Germany
Art was vital for propaganda. Elimination of opposition…in forms of literature, press, theatre, and music. Artists were put under censorship…created propaganda art demanded by the government…if one were to not follow the expectations they would loose their job. Heroism, strength, nationalism, and community were main themes. Source of racist politics upon which its ideology was founded. Important element to strengthening the Third Reich. Political aims and artistic expression became one. Country life, health, and the Aryan race. No place for modern art. Portray German world as peaceful. Threatening of jobs, family, and existence. Jews depicted as inhuman and inferior. In films Jews showed as vermin’s, fit only for extermination.Stalin's USSR
Rigid control over the sphere of the arts and popular Culture. Cultural Revolution of 1928-32, was the rooting out off al elements of bourgeois culture and constructs a new Soviet Culture. (Socialist Realism) Teachings of Socialist ideology: books. Instrument of the party leadership…Stalin Cult. Encouraged patriotism ad Russian nationalism…in the threat of war. Full-scale assault on the intelligentsia and cultural elites. ‘Fellow Travellers’ tolerated under Lenin were to be removed and replaced by artists whose loyalty to socialism was not a question. Komosol enthusiasts attacked ‘bourgeois’ elements…during theatre productions they booed the performers and interrupted the plays. Cult of the ‘little man’…writing of novels that glorified the achievements of the industrial worker and collective peasant…bourgeois writing criticized as a representation only of wealthy people of high status. Showed heroes connected to party, war stories, detective stories where capitalists were the bad guys. Agriculture, Red Square made 6 directions available for soldiers to march through during parades; metro station…beautiful and designed to impress, Moscow university. Rejection of abstract art as posters, paintings and sculptures presented images of worker and peasant…working for socialism. Statues of Stalin along with the ones of Lenin. Many writers, actors, directors, artists who did not follow these standard were either killed or sent to the gulags.Compare/ Contrast
Both made it an effort to stop new art from influencing the people. They controlled what art was published and used in as propaganda. Depicting themselves in their ideals…and manipulating the people. Both brought down their enemies through art the Nazis with the Jews and the Russians with the bourgeois society.Women
Nazi Germany
Women were seen as full time housewives the Nazi’s aimed at removing them from labour force and encouraged them to have more children. Several policies involving tax concessions and welfare payments were put into affect to try and motivate women to take rolls as domestic housewives. For example overall men were paid more than women as a method to increase the number of housewives to fit the ideal Nazi roll. Sometimes young women were employed in more basic jobs such as waitress, secretaries, or other service oriented labour. Another policy placed by Hitler involved couples receiving interest free loans of RM 600 (about 4 months worth of an average worker’s salary), the wife was required to quit her job and a quarter of the loan was cancelled for every child born. Propaganda constantly stressed the nobility of motherhood and in 1939 the Mother’s Cross was introduced to reward mothers of large families. By Hitler instating these polices he managed to increase the birth rate and the number of marriages during the Third Reich.Stalin's USSR
Granted better rights after 1917. Abortion and divorce easier. But women remained under represented in the party. Collectivisation and industrialisation relied on the labour o women, worked and used by government out of economic necessity. Everyone is equal…men and women too. Higher education provided, new opportunities. Cultural revolution aimed to destroy traditional ‘bourgeois’ concept of family…women in the countryside found themselves deserted by husbands who left for jobs in the town; breakup of families, orphans roamed the streets…concerned the authorities. Muslim sectors stayed resistant to change because of religious reasons. Then big change with ‘Great Retreat’ decisions to improve family policy. Raised status of marriages (mother-heroines). Divorce more expensive. Homosexuality made illegal 1939. Family now necessary unit of socialist society, traditional values were reasserted.
Compare/ Contrast
One similarity, which one can assume the Russians copied from the Germanys in an attempt to improve family policy was the idea of awarding women who have may children in order to encourage them to do so…ie. Mothers red cross of Germany and Mother-Heroines of USSR. Women were viewed as more important in Nazi Germany for their domesticity while women in USSR were simply treated as men, extras in the work force given rights and opportunities for the government’s gain by having more citizens working for them. The family policies caused chaos and were later changed in order to bring back traditional values but generally women’s lives suffered as they were abandoned by their husbands and children. There is no evidence that women in Nazi Germany were not content with their position and seemed to fit perfectly into a system which was based on everyone being organized into their roles and position in the Nazi society.